Alarm devices intended to awaken sleeping persons, or to elicit the attention of awake persons, usually emit audible signals which can be distracting to others in the vicinity and embarrassing to the operator. In the case of the deaf, auditory signals are completely ineffective. While patents have been issued for devices intended to awaken deaf persons, these devices are relatively bulky, complex, or unsuited for wearing comfortably on the person. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,517,368 issued to Wiseley on Aug. 1, 1950, clocks with time controlled alarm mechanisms have been proposed which are connected to the speaker coil of a hearing aid to impress sounds on the auditory organ. More recently, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,247 issued to Grooms on Apr. 11, 1989, alarm clocks have been built in the form of in-the-ear insertable or on-the-ear wearable alarm devices. Clearly, such devices are bulky and uncomfortable to a user, and may fall out of the ear during the time a person is asleep, thus becoming useless.
Another approach that has been proposed is a device such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,882 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,944 issued on Jun. 14, 1977 and Jun. 6, 1978, respectively, to Muncheryan, which couple an electric timer unit to a pulsative resonator unit which may be positioned under a sleeper's pillow. When activated, the resonator unit produces vibratory pulses adjacent a person's head. Such devices cannot be worn and are not portable, and thus not usable by individuals needing to be awakened or alerted when not in their home environment. Still another approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,580,598 issued to Rody on Jan. 1, 1952 wherein an electric clock is connected to a vibrator mounted on the frame of a bed so that vibrations are imparted to the sleeper in a bed.
Finally, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,322,500 issued to Gill on Nov. 18, 1919, a wristwatch having a clock or spring driven gear train is provided with one or more hammerheads, which are driven to impart a hammer alarm to the wearer upon a time signal. Such a device is clearly very cumbersome and awkward.
Such prior art fails to make use of high energy density electrical batteries and high efficiency rare earth permanent magnet motors, among other advances, and consequently prior alarm devices are not satisfactory for everyday use when comfortably worn on the person. PG,4